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October 2016

Private prison company Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) has decided to rebrand itself in hope of moving away from the perception of for-profit prison company, as reported by The Street. The company would now like to be called CoreCivic.

Stock in CCA has been under pressure ever since the Department of Justice decided to phase out the use of private prisons in August. The company is hoping that the new name and diversifying their interests into real estate and treatment facilities will help the company move away from it’s negative image as a private prison company and help the company bounce back from decades of bad press.

Olubunmi Toyin Joshua, 54, detained in the Rolling Plains Detention Center in Haskell, Texas, was found unresponsive in her cell the night Oct. 24 and was immediately taken to Haskell Hospital. Her cause of death will be determined by a pending autopsy. Joshua is the first detainee to die in ICE custody in fiscal year 2017, though not the first to die in ICE custody in 2016. 11 people have died in ICE custody in 2016.

The Rolling Plains Detention Center is operated by the Emerald Company, a for-profit prison company.

The facilities in Ohio, New Mexico, and Texas had previously been used exclusively by the Bureau of Prisons, which falls under the jurisdiction of the DOJ. . However, this comes at a time when the Department of Homeland Security is doing its own review of private prison use, and will decide in the next months whether to continue using private companies to run their immigrant detention centers.

According to Odessa American, three Ector County commissioners voted against sending a demand letter to the private prison company Community Education Centers Inc. (CEC) for repairs that are needed for the Ector County courthouse.

This decision comes after a Monday meeting, where one of the items on the agenda was whether the county should send the letter demanding over $8,500 in repairs to CEC. The Ector County courthouse is in need of repairs after sewage leaked from the Ector County Correctional Facility that is located on the upper levels of the courthouse. The sewage leaked due to faulty pipes that were clogged by the prisoners.

County Judge Ron Eckert placed the demand letter on the agenda Monday evening, which drew criticism from Commissioner Greg Simmons. Simmons, who is working with CEC on a new lease, said that they "don't want it looking like we're adversaries." However, Eckert said that he wanted to be transparent with county taxpayers and show that they were going after the money. He also said that it was more of a request letter than a demand.

Commissioners Simmons, Dale Childers, and Armando Rodriguez all voted against sending the letter, even after it was amended to be a request letter.

During a tour of South Plain communities, State Rep. Drew Springer and State Sen. Charles Perry told community members that their representatives in the U.S. Congress need to fight private prison closures, according to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

Springer and Perry toured through Post, Jayton, Roby, Aspermont, Haskell, and Throckmorton, where they spoke about a variety of topics, including border security, rural healthcare, and private prisons. Rep. Springer brought up the Giles W. Dalby Correctional Facility, a private prison run by the Management & Training Corporation (MTC), which is currently in limbo following the decision by the Department of Justice to phase out the use of private prisons.

Springer said that both he and Sen. Perry had recently put out a letter in support of the private prison. He then said "anytime I get a chance to talk to any congressman, I tell them they’ve got to fight this. We need to make sure the Bureau of Prisons gets off of this or at least lay out a plan that says it’s a five-year, 10-year, some sort of phase-out that communities can plan on."

Ector County will request over $8,500 in reimbursement from Community Education Centers Inc. (CEC) for damages to the courthouse that came from the jail on the second story, according to Odessa America Online.

The damage reportedly came from plumbing issues in the federal lockup that is located on the second story of the Ector County courthouse. It was first reported in March 2016, when inmates started clogging toilets and damaging sewer lines in the Ector County Correctional Facility.

County commissioners are expected to vote Monday to send a demand letter to CEC for reimbursement of the cost of repairs. It is possible that the reimbursement will increase as the building maintenance staff submit more time and costs for the repairs.

According to Huffington Post, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) revised and renewed its' contract with a private company to keep operating the country's largest family detention center.

ICE renewed the contract with Corrections Corporations of America (CCA) to run the South Texas Family Residential Center for another five years. The contract renewal comes after the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced they would phase out their use of private prisons. While this announcement did not affect immigrant detention centers, such as the South Texas Family Residential Center, it did cause the Department of Homeland Security to review whether ICE should follow through with the DOJ decision to phase out using private prison companies.

Under the renewed contract CCA will receive less money to run the facility. However, CCA will receive payment regardless of how many beds are filled at their facility. The contract is scheduled to last until September of 2021, but ICE does have the option to cancel it with 60 days' notice.

KLTV reported that a federal judge has sentenced a former supervisor at a private prison to a little over a year in federal prison for having sex with a federal prisoner under their supervision.

A federal judge sentenced Leticia Garza to 13 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release. Garza was the supervisor of laundry, property, and supply at Val Verde Correctional Facility, which is operated by private prison corporation GEO Group.

The sentence could have been up to 15 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

The Val Verde Correctional Facility is a Criminal Alien Requirement prison, which is under contract with the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to detain non-U.S. citizens. It has a history of prisoner assault and contraband smuggling. Since it is contracted with the BOP, the Department of Justice's decision to phase out private prisons will affect this facility.

Multiple shareholders lawsuits have been filed against GEO Group, alleging violations of securities laws. The lawsuits are are on behalf of investors who purchased stock between March 2012 and August 12th of the same year. These lawsuits are the newest of a growing list of shareholders who allege that GEO made false or misleading statements and failed to disclose that GEO's facilities lacked proper security and safety standards and that they were less efficient than Bureau of Prison run facilities. The lawsuits also claim that GEO did not inform shareholders that the DOJ was unlikely to renew private-prison contracts.

Public News Service reported that a federal judge ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to stop requesting that certain inmates who are up for release be detained longer to determine their immigration status.

This ruling adds more intensity to the debate in Texas and other states over so-called 'sanctuary cities', in which local officials have no connection with ICE, therefore creating a safe space for undocumented immigrants. The order bars ICE from requesting that local jails detain possible deportable individuals for 48 hours, when they would otherwise be able to leave, in order to check their immigration status. Immigration advocates have long said that ICE detainers are illegal and used to detain people stopped for minor offenses.

Bob Libel, executive director of Grassroots Leadership, said "In Dallas County, the sheriff said she wouldn't be honoring some detainers, and in Houston, there's been a very active campaign to try to convince elected officials there to end detainers." He then said ""We do believe that there seems to be growing momentum against these things."